Zakura has released Zakura Common, an open-source cryptography toolkit designed to address one of the biggest performance issues affecting shielded Zcash transactions: the time wallets need to generate them.
The toolkit, launched August 31, can reduce shielded transaction creation from more than three seconds to less than 200 milliseconds in some tests, according to Zakura. The team said mobile proof generation has improved by more than 14 times, potentially reducing one of the main delays experienced when users send private ZEC.
Desktop users could also see significant improvements, with transaction creation more than five times faster under the new system. Zakura reported that Sinsemilla hashing performance has increased by more than 21 times, trial decryption is over 1.5 times faster and zk-SNARK verification is four to eight times quicker.
The libraries can be integrated directly by wallet developers without requiring a change to Zcash’s consensus rules or a network-wide upgrade. Zakura plans to include the technology in its upcoming 1.3.0 node release, and Vizor Wallet is among the first wallets to adopt it.
Speeding Up Private Transactions
Zcash shielded transactions conceal the sender, recipient and amount involved in a payment. Before the transaction is broadcast, the wallet must complete a series of complex cryptographic operations to prove that the transaction remains valid under the network’s rules.
Because much of that work occurs on the user’s device, private transactions can take several seconds to generate even when the blockchain itself is operating normally.
Zakura Common is aimed specifically at this client-side processing bottleneck. It does not attempt to change block production or Zcash consensus, allowing the performance improvements to be deployed without modifying the network.
Zakura said the new libraries could also help wallets synchronize more quickly. Nodes running its software may benefit from faster transaction validation, reduced orphan rates and improved transaction propagation. The reported gains come from Zakura’s internal benchmarks.
Broader Scaling Plans
Zakura is an independent implementation of Zcash node software led by co-founder Sean Bowe and Dev Ojha. It operates separately from the implementation maintained by the Zcash Foundation.
The project is being positioned as a testing ground for wider scaling improvements, while Project Tachyon has also adopted the new stack.
Zcash’s performance challenges extend beyond block times. Wallet synchronization, node verification and the amount of data clients must process can all affect the user experience. Proof generation on individual devices represents another important constraint that Zakura is attempting to reduce.
The project ultimately aims to process more than 50,000 private transactions per second, which would put it in the range of major card networks. Zakura currently compares that goal with a wallet-software throughput limit of roughly one transaction per second.
The team said its software can already accommodate the 25-second block interval proposed for NU7, which is expected to be Zcash’s next major upgrade.
ZEC jumped roughly 5% to about $839 following the announcement, although the token later came under pressure during a broader market decline. Zakura is encouraging wallet developers to adopt its open-source cryptographic libraries, which can operate on the current Zcash network without requiring a protocol change.
